tjbreen

Last season I broke one of the sway bar locating brackets clean off at the subframe so after replacing it I also purchased a set of sway bar triangulation brackets to keep it from flexing enough to break in the first place. The car sees about 15 track days a year and I do have the M030 bars.

Last week I noticed that one of the triangulation brackets had sheared off at one of the bends. Has anyone else face this issue and solved it? Is the only option to go with after market bars that bolt directly to the frame?

T. Breen

fortysixandtwo

The Weltmister bars have a really stout mounting system, so they may hold up.
From my limited experience, I have not heard of any mount failures with the triangulation brackets installed. What is the rest of the suspension like? You may be asking the swaybar to be doing more work than it should. It might be time for different springs or struts.

gtomarty

Not enough spring, tore my weltmister mount, using stock springs and larger bar. Did not know it was a problem untill I used r compounds on the track.

Oddjob

Do you have solid bushings (delrin), or all rubber?

eyeball kid

One of my triangulation brackets sheered in just that spot, but that was because some idiot mechanic forgot to tighten the bolts to the stock bracket. My guess is also that the triangulation bracket is being "asked" to do too much.

N_Halbert

I did the same. Put on M030 bars and broke drop links and mounting brackets. So, replaced all with new along with triangulating brackets. Stock springs and shocks, R compounds and run 6-10 autocrosses a year and 1-5 track days. I broke the stiffening brackets in 2 years of installing. I am considering upgrading shocks, struts, springs and t-bars.

tjbreen

I have Delrin mounts at all four points with some rubber on the outsides. The suspension is Koni double adjustables with 525lb springs front. I am thinking of going higher on the spring rates next season but will that be enough to save my sway bar mounts? Short of going with an aftermarket swaybar, I may have some really beefy triangulation brackets welded up.

Oddjob

Having run between 160 and 600 lb/in front springs w/ a 30mm front bar both with and without triangulated braces on DE and Club Race cars for almost 15 years, and never had any swaybar part break - I dont think the spring rate has anything to do with it.

The only problems I have seen with swaybars over the years, the front frame rails will fatigue over time and the bracket mounts will start pushing through the sheet metal. Also, knew of a guy that had problems with his sway bar popping out of the droplink mount on the control arm, but he didnt have the C-clips installed and the swaybar was slightly bent from a wreck.

Control arms and the swaybar pivot in different planes, so something has to slide, flex or bend when the control arm is loaded. There should be some movement allowed by the design and also by the flex of stock rubber bushings (which is significantly reduced when using delrin). Seems like something might be binding or keeping the swaybar ends from moving in the drop links.

Your car ever been in an accident - frame rails, cross member, and swaybar all straight and true? And I am assuming everything is installed correctly.

You might consider taking some of the delrin out and put some more rubber back in. I would rather be flexing the rubber bushings than the mounts. But there might still be some sort of binding problem.

You could lift the front of the car up on stands, and put a jack under a wheel and move it up and down to watch the movement of the swaybar and control arm through their range of motion, and see the action/pivoting of the mounts and bushings.

Mike1982

Oddjob, are you talking about me with the sway bar coming out of the droplink mount? I was at Mid-Ohio when it happened, I want to say first weekend in Oct. Either way, that happened to me but I also have stock suspension besides new konis on the rear and of course the 968 M030 sway bars. All the bushings on my control arms new and so are the ball joints. My bar is brand new and never in an accident either. I need to get new front springs and rear torsion bars then really have some fun!

2bridges

you are definitely running a light spring. More spring certainly would help.

Not so sure that is the root/cause however. As OddJob suggested a good check for bent components is you next best bet.

Oddjob

it was a guy/car up at Brainerd International about 6-8 years ago. Do you have the c-clips on the ends of the bar?

Bri Bro

A 525lb front spring is light?

tjbreen

525 is a light track spring. I kept the springs somewhat lighter because my home track is very rough. After a season of driving on more distant smooth tracks, I am ready to go heavier on the springs as I do notice an unsettling feeling on turn in.

I was thinking of 800s up front and 950s in the rear.

Mike1982

I did NOT have the c-clips on the ends of the bars and to be honest I didn't know they made such a thing. I will be new ones to put on now but think I need to run a stiffer front spring so it doesn't have happen again. It was fun the first 2 sessions out, then pop and the sway was not attached on my passenger side anymore. I just disconnected it from the driver's side and ran the rest of the day without it. Where do I get those c-clips from? Also 2bridges, what else should I be looking at since you said about bent components??...

Oddjob

Mike, the PN for the c-clips is N 012 449 1, those are for the 968 M030 30mm bar only. Available through any dealer, and I am sure that any aftermarket supplier that sells the bars will also have them (like Paragon).

Guys, keep in mind that the factory spring rates used w/ the 30mm bar were approx 160 lb/in. So if youre breaking mounts or having other problems with the swaybar setup, I would start looking for something else wrong before blaming the spring rates.